With two days to go before current funding legislation expires, the US Congress has averted a shutdown of government by voting through a continuing resolution that funds most science agencies at flat levels from fiscal year 2010. But battles over proposed cuts are far from over; the new bill expires March 18 and two weeks may not be enough time to bridge the gulf between the positions of Republicans in the US House and Democrats in the US Senate, on a bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

On February 19, the Republican-majority House passed its version of a bill that would do that. It included deep cuts for science agencies. For example there was an 18% decrease in the budget of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy and a 5% decrease for the National Institutes of Health, compared to fiscal year 2010 levels. But the legislation failed to pass the Democrat-majority Senate. The Senate is now likely to work on its own version of a funding bill and while it is not known how science agencies may fare, several prominent Democratic senators have made clear their opposition to such sweeping reductions as the House passed. On Friday Senator Dick Durbin (pictured) traveled to Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago and voiced opposition to the cuts.

Image: Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) / Argonne National Laboratory